Marathon's Message To Visiting Boats

[Kettlewell]

Annapolis has many times the boats found in Marathon and it is free to dinghy ashore at the end of any street that ends on the water. There are also free places to anchor in comfort. If one wishes to you can pay to use the showers and laundry at the harbormasters office for a modest fee. It is more than supply and demand. It is also the attitude of those who run the harbor and the community.

[smj]

Originally Posted by Kettlewell

Annapolis has many times the boats found in Marathon and it is free to dinghy ashore at the end of any street that ends on the water. There are also free places to anchor in comfort. If one wishes to you can pay to use the showers and laundry at the harbormasters office for a modest fee. It is more than supply and demand. It is also the attitude of those who run the harbor and the community.

I think there is probably equal to or less anchoring space as opposed to moorings in Annapolis than Marathon and if I remember correctly they were $30-$35 per night. You are absolutely right there is a lot of free dinghy dockage in Annapolis. Don't get me wrong I'm not all for what's going on in Marathon. We've been going there since 1992 and there has been a huge change. I really enjoyed the old days when it was all anchoring and I believe you could fit more
boats in anchoring than nowadays with the moorings. Things will always change and the choice is left to you whether you want to live with the changes or not.

[dave c]

Just got back from 2 month cruise of the keys and totally skipped Marathon. More fun in Key West anyway if you can deal with crowded and quite unprotected anchorages. After anchoring out for a few days decided to use Key West mooring field for a month. I didn't like putting down the one months deposit plus monthly fee. That policy sucks. Its a mooring ball not a hotel room. Facilities are decent. Dingy ride can be rough and wet. Marathon is run down with Faro Blanco resort gone and few decent restaurants. I won't be returning to Marathon even for fishing trips this summer because of the new dinghy dock charges. I won't spend a penny there and emailed the city council staff members and let them know this. As for the marina losing money, 300 dollars a month times 221 moorings is 660000 dollars. How come private marinas in the Keys which are sometimes smaller can still turn a profit and they don't take the surrounding area and fill it with mooring balls and charge. Something is going on here and local business will suffer due to bad decisions by local government.

[smj]

Davec, the problem is they can't keep the balls full year round. Full occupancy maybe 3-4 months a year and then maybe 20% full for the rest of the year.
Takes quite a bit of your mooring revenue figures. If Marathon is not for you then I think your decision to go elsewhere is a good one.
There is no comparing Key West to Marathon just as there is no comparing the two mooring fields. I like Key West but their mooring field is extremely exposed.

[smj]

Originally Posted by dave c

Just got back from 2 month cruise of the keys and totally skipped Marathon. More fun in Key West anyway if you can deal with crowded and quite unprotected anchorages. After anchoring out for a few days decided to use Key West mooring field for a month. I didn't like putting down the one months deposit plus monthly fee. That policy sucks. Its a mooring ball not a hotel room. Facilities are decent. Dingy ride can be rough and wet. Marathon is run down with Faro Blanco resort gone and few decent restaurants. I won't be returning to Marathon even for fishing trips this summer because of the new dinghy dock charges. I won't spend a penny there and emailed the city council staff members and let them know this. As for the marina losing money, 300 dollars a month times 221 moorings is 660000 dollars. How come private marinas in the Keys which are sometimes smaller can still turn a profit and they don't take the surrounding area and fill it with mooring balls and charge. Something is going on here and local business will suffer due to bad decisions by local government.

I guess what I don't understand is you payed more money for a month at the Key West mooring field than Marathon and they don't offer as many facilities. The Key West mooring field isn't well protected at all, they dont have an office with free wifi, no workshop that you can use, the dinghy dockage or vehicle parking isn't very secure and no city park next door if you want to play some tennis. But Key West has a lot more bars and resteraunts if that's what your into.

[CaptForce]

Originally Posted by smj

I guess what I don't understand is you payed more money for a month at the Key West mooring field than Marathon and they don't offer as many facilities.................................

There's no need for "understanding". I avoid Marathon and Key West, anchoring in Sunset Cove, Lower Matecumbe Bight, Newfound Harbor, Tavernier, Big Spanish Channel, Boca Grande, Garden Key, Bahia Honda, etc... There are a number of fultime cruisers that don't congregate with masses of boats in the crowded places.

[smj]

Originally Posted by CaptForce

There's no need for "understanding". I avoid Marathon and Key West, anchoring in Sunset Cove, Lower Matecumbe Bight, Newfound Harbor, Tavernier, Big Spanish Channel, Boca Grande, Garden Key, Bahia Honda, etc... There are a number of fultime cruisers that don't congregate with masses of boats in the crowded places.

Goody for you. If you notice in my post it was directed to Dave C. We also anchor all those places as well as picking up a mooring in Boot Key. Goody for me:-)

[CaptForce]

Originally Posted by smj

Goody for you. If you notice in my post it was directed to Dave C. We also anchor all those places as well as picking up a mooring in Boot Key. Goody for me:-)

Thanks, It's good to hear that others are breaking away from the pack. I probably should not be too judgmental of those that cruise to destinations where they remain in big clusters. I do recognize the lure of the social interactions, night spots, easy provisioning and support. There's a big difference between taking a few days on occasion at these places and taking a mooring for months. We seem to come across a lot of cruisers that take a few weeks moving south; plant themselves in one of the snowbird rookeries; and then months later take a few weeks back north. This mode of cruising makes Marathon the place that it has become and I need to be better at accepting it, but I do miss the Keys that I knew many years ago. I need to fight becoming an old curmudgeon!

[Jane.Joy]

We've been in Marathon for seven weeks; it's like a vortex that sucks in would-be cruisers and turns them into live-aboards. But I will put in a plug for Marathon, for anyone who wants to upgrade their energy management systems. We came here because of SALT Services, and in the past several weeks they have installed new batteries, new inverter/battery charger, new solar, new monitoring systems for batteries and solar, new refrigeration, new watermaker, new air conditioning, new 12 V and 110 outlets, etc. A guy who has been walking past our slip for the past weeks finally stopped and said, "So you must be planning to GO somewhere." God in heaven, we sure hope so. If only we can break free of the Marathon vortex. Anyway, SALT is awesome, and another reason to come to Marathon.

[dave c]

Originally Posted by smj

I guess what I don't understand is you payed more money for a month at the Key West mooring field than Marathon and they don't offer as many facilities. The Key West mooring field isn't well protected at all, they dont have an office with free wifi, no workshop that you can use, the dinghy dockage or vehicle parking isn't very secure and no city park next door if you want to play some tennis. But Key West has a lot more bars and resteraunts if that's what your into.

I don't mind paying for mooring fields but when it is full why should I pay the same price and not get the same service. If one uses the facilities then there should be an extra charge but just to park and access the city should not cost 22 dollars. Key Wests mooring field does have free wifi and some cruisers with antennas even got it out on their boats. As for security there is a locking gate with a combination to get on their dingy dock. You are right about the workshop and the protection, it gets sloppy there in northerlys.

[Jane.Joy]

Originally Posted by dave c

As for security there is a locking gate with a combination to get on their dingy dock.

Yeah, and the combination is 3338, right?

[virginia boy]

[QUOTE=CaptForce;958566] I need to fight becoming an old curmudgeon![/QUOT

[smj]

Originally Posted by dave c

I don't mind paying for mooring fields but when it is full why should I pay the same price and not get the same service. If one uses the facilities then there should be an extra charge but just to park and access the city should not cost 22 dollars. Key Wests mooring field does have free wifi and some cruisers with antennas even got it out on their boats. As for security there is a locking gate with a combination to get on their dingy dock. You are right about the workshop and the protection, it gets sloppy there in northerlys.

I absolutely agree about the dinghy dock prices while at anchor. The Key West dinghy dock does have a gate but anyone can climb around it with no
Problem.

[Custom30]

Having anchored there in March, I don't think it has anything to do with derelict boats, as there are some of those on mooring balls right now, sinking, listing, rotting etc.. It seems they don't mind derelicts at all as long as they're paying $300/month for a mooring ball.

Besides, where the line is drawn as to what is a derelict depends on who draws it. The guy in the mega yacht thinks we're all derelicts, and he is more likely to have political say than you and I. Allowing the line to be drawn is a slippery slope that many of us could eventually end up on the wrong side of with navigable boats.

I don't see why derelicts are a burden on the City anyway. If they are not in navigation, the City can call me and I would happily take care of their problem. Scrap lead is going for 85 cents per pound, and a fiberglass boat can be crushed up by a skid steer rented cheap and put in a roll off, also cheap. A boat with 4,000 pounds of lead in the keel would make for a profitable half day's work. In today's market, lots of boats are worth more this way than they would ever bring at sale.

This is not about raising money, or derelict boats, it's about the City having control over who is in the harbor.

Anchor down by the old Boot Key Bridge (good protection, good holding), and use Burdine's dinghy dock, and tell the City Marina to stuff it.

[Therapy]

Originally Posted by Custom30

Anchor down by the old Boot Key Bridge (good protection, good holding), and use Burdine's dinghy dock, and tell the City Marina to stuff it.

And then I saw someone fill up their water jugs at 0200 when no one (almost) would see them.